Day in the Life: Non-Profit dedicated to Scientific Research

November 7th through 11th focused on Careers in Science.  To aid and wrap up those resources, we are excited to have alum Kelsey Dashiell talk about her career at DebRa of America on Wednesday, November 16th on @PennCareerDay.  She’ll share what it’s like to work in an area that you may not have considered before in the world of science – non-profits work.  There’s more to research in this industry, there are also relationships!  Read more about Kelsey below and remember to follow her on the 16th!

Kelsey Dashiell is a Program Manager at DebRA of America (http://www.debra.org), the only national non-profit dedicated to funding research into a cure while providing programs and services to people suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).  EB is a rare genetic disease characterized by chronic, painful blistering inside and outside the body.

As Program Manager, Kelsey is responsible for maintaining and evaluating DebRA’s existing programs while developing new ones.  She ensures that services meet patient needs, communicates with families and health providers, and looks for gaps in existing EB care where DebRA could be of aid.

Prior to working for DebRA, Kelsey was an intern at GBCHealth and volunteered in Peru designing health programs.  She graduated from the School of Arts and Sciences in 2009 with a BA in Health and Societies, concentrating in Health Care Markets and Finance.

A Day in the Life: Public Relations

If you value communication, creativity, and working with the media and public to get the word out, then public relations may be for you.  On Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 we welcome alum Meagan Sloan to @PennCareerDay on Twitter.  Public relations is a field where social media has grown in popularity thanks to the variety of tools it offers to this industry. We’re excited to have Meagan post to give you an inside look at what her day is like in the current communications climate. To learn more about Meagan, read her bio below and follow her on the 26th!

As an Account Executive for Brownstein Group’s PR team, Meagan is responsible for day-to-day account activity for clients such as TireVan, Harcum College, and Craiger Drake Designs. In addition to executing public relations tactics for these clients, she also provides support across other PR account, gaining experience in a variety of industries, including real estate, education, non-profit, and consumer products. During her time at Brownstein Group, Meagan has assisted in social media and media relations campaigns, securing placements in a number of local outlets, such as The Inquirer, Philadelphia Business Journal, Philadelphia magazine, Metro and local broadcast affiliates.

A Philadelphia native, Meagan graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in Communication and a minor in Consumer Psychology. While in college, she interned at Brownstein Group in the fall of 2009, supporting the Harcum College, Bancroft, and Asian World of Martial Arts accounts. In addition, Meagan held public relations and advertising internships at other Philadelphia agencies, including Red Tettemer, The Star Group, and The Karma Agency.

If you would like to learn more about a career in public relations, visit our resource page for this field here.

 

A Day in the Life: Global Marketing & Education Consultant

October 17th through October 21st is our International Careers week.  We’ll be highlighting our resources and featuring events to help those of you who want to study, volunteer, intern or have a career abroad or in international relations.  All of these highlights are in preparation for our International Opportunities Fair on October 25th (save that date!).  To help shed light on a career path abroad, we welcome alum Irene Tieh on Wednesday, October 19th to @PennCareerDay on Twitter.  She is currently a marketing and education consultant, and has vast experience living abroad and working with international clients. Read more about Irene below, and don’t forget to follow her on the 19th!

Irene Tieh spent her lifetime bridging the East and West.  She studied, traveled, lived and worked in China.  After graduating from UPENN with a MA and BA, Irene earned a full scholarship to study at Beijing’s Language and Culture University where she taught Chinese professionals English as well as coached students on how to prepare for their studies in the US.  She then moved to New York to pursue a career in global marketing where she worked for the pioneers of consumer product marketing and branding- Estee Lauder Companies and L’Oreal USA.

After years of traveling around the world, Irene was ready to return to China as an expatriate.  She took an executive position at Education First Professional English Division to develop a Career Services program, which evolved into a department of 4 business units that expanded across 4 Chinese cities.  To differentiate Education First (formerly English First) from its competitors, Irene spearheaded the departments’ strategic branding by identifying key business partnerships, and by producing media-covered programs and events that encouraged students to use English confidently in real-life situations. Through her work in branding and marketing, Irene realized a strong correlation between marketing and launching products with helping people in their careers.  Just as businesses go through different cycles of development to stay relevant and current to their market, people go through different stages of life to evolve and transform themselves.  Given her corporate and education background, Irene has developed an effective marketing approach to help individuals with the next phases in their college or professional endeavors.

In addition to helping UPENN admissions and career services, Irene is a sought-after Cross Cultural Expert specializing in China and US.  After working in China, she became an advocate for human capital and leadership because people or talent remains the biggest challenge for employers in that region.  She works directly with CEOs of major corporations as Co-Chair of the Membership Committee for CEO Connection, an exclusive membership organization that connects the best business leaders worldwide. She is an experience lecturer who presented to the Beijing Olympic Committee as well major Chinese universities and corporations.

A Day in the Life: Postdoctoral Scholar

Starting the week of September 26th, the Grad & Postdoc team kicked off their annual event, the Academic Career Conference, for the graduate students and postdocs here at Penn.  The whole week, we have been highlighting resources through our social media channels on the academic job market.  To shed additional light on life in academia, we’re excited to have alum Stephen Schueller, Ph.D, contribute to @PennCareerDay on Twitter on Thursday, October 6th.   To learn more about Stephen, please read his bio below, and remember to follow him on the 6th!

Stephen Schueller (Ph.D. in Psychology, Penn’s School of Arts and Sciences ’11) is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Psychiatry.  He started his graduate work at Penn in 2005 after receiving his bachelor’s in psychology from the University of California, Riverside. During his undergraduate, he worked as a research assistant studying happiness from a psychological perspective. At Penn, he trained as a researcher and clinician while working towards a doctorate in clinical psychology.

Through his research and clinical experiences, he became convinced that psychological treatments reach far too few and that expanding the reach of psychology would involve not just training more psychologists but creating innovative interventions. These interests brought him to UCSF Medical School. As a clinical researcher at UCSF, he has the opportunity to conduct research in an applied setting. He provides individual and group therapy in the public sector at San Francisco General Hospital. His current research studies the use of the Internet and health information technology to provide interventions that promote psychological health and behavior change.

A Day in the Life: Advertising

On September 22nd, we welcomed Suresh Nair from Grey Group to discuss careers in advertising.  To continue to learn about this path and the range of opportunities available, we will feature Justin Ching, SAS ’11, to @PennCareerDay on Twitter on Wednesday, September 28th. Justin has been with Google since July 2011 and  will discuss what his day is like working in advertising with this leader in technology. Read more about Justin below, and remember to follow him on the 28th!

Justin Ching graduated from the College of Arts & Sciences in 2011 as an Urban Studies Major.  During his time on campus, he was Director of The Excelano Project, Penn’s premier spoken word poetry collective. In between school years, he interned in Integrating Marketing and TV Research for Disney|ABC Television Group. Justin now works for Google Inc. as an Agency Strategist for their Global Advertising division.  Most recently, Justin has also taken a role as a Project Lead for Google TV Marketing.